Resource Credits
Resource credits are not only a kind way of saying 'thanks!' to the creator of your mesh/texture/artwork, but also encourages them usually to make more! These sorts of resources are an essential part of creating for many Sims creators, and we ask for the creators of these resources to be credited for a few reasons:

It protects you from copyright claims. If you choose to use people's resources without permission or attribution, this leaves you vulnerable to DMCA takedown notices and, if the copyright violation is serious, potential legal action.

It helps other Sim creators find resources to use in their own creations

It helps MTS moderators double check that the resource creators are okay with their stuff being shared and remixed

It is the decent thing to do. Resource creators are creators, just the same as Sims creators, and deserve credit for their work and deserve that their terms of use be honoured. How would you feel if someone downloaded your sims creations, used them as a base for their own work, and then reuploaded the content somewhere without asking your permission or giving you any credit? Probably not very happy.

Because of this, MTS has the following policy on resource credits:

If the resource(s) are correctly attributed and follow the original creator's policy, MTS will thoroughly investigate any DMCA takedown notices before we take action. So we will be in your corner!

If the uploader chooses not to correctly attribute and follow the original creator's policy, MTS will honour DMCA takedown notices which are not obviously spurious. We will not offer you any additional protection beyond this. You will be solely liable for any consequences, including legal consequences, of using stolen materials.

For this reason, we strongly recommend all uploads provide full attributions and follow all copyright laws and terms of service/creator policies. However, the choice is yours. Uploads without attributions or which do not follow the creator's policy will still be approved, but as mentioned above, they are potentially more vulnerable to copyright claims from the creators of any resources used.

What sort of things count as a resource?
Any creative resource you incorporate into your final CC which was not originally made by you. This most commonly includes images like textures, patterns, wallpapers, logos, and photographs. Any image that you use that wasn't made by you originally. This can also include meshes which you have used, and anything else that fits under the category of "made by someone else".

These guidelines only apply if you:

Bought/downloaded a texture set from a site.

Bought/downloaded a mesh/3D model from a site.

Bought/downloaded an image/artwork for your posters/paintings and any other object that you might have gotten images/artwork for.

Have created a mesh/texture/artwork that is a plumbob or anything EA-related.

How can I tell if a resource is okay to use?
This really depends on who the creator is and their policy. So do check if the site or the creator has a Terms of Use page or some sort of policy, carefully read through it and check that they accept anything for non-commercial usage. If they do accept non-commercial use, then that's awesome! If they don't, we trust you to not use their work. If they don't have any policy or a note saying that you can use their work, it should be fine.

Note: Pinterest, google search images, or any other third party image hosting site do not count as good sites to get your images from since they aren't the original creators of the images.

How do I format credits?
Proper credits need to include three things:

The original creator's name

The name of the resource(s) you've used, or a description if no name is provided

A clickable link to the post or page which contains the resource. Try to link directly to the resource, rather than to the creator's profile or main website.

A few things to be aware of

Make sure that the Terms of Use of the source website does not prohibit reuse and modification of the resources

Search engine results like google images and aggregate sites like Pinterest are not acceptable sources. They rarely include correct info on the resource creators or the creator's Terms of Use.

If the creator's website does not allow you to link to the individual page of that resource, give us a description of how to find that resource on the website

Avoid hotlinking directly to download servers like mediafire.

For blog and Tumblr links, make sure that you're linking directly to the post with the resources, rather than the creator's blog or tags (see below for more about Tumblr links)

What if I've made my own resources?
If you made all the textures yourself however, please do mention this in your description. If you've hosted the image/texture/mesh you made on another site we would really love to see a link as well!

I made my own work, what should I do?

If you made all the textures yourself, however, please do mention this in your description. If you've hosted the image/texture/mesh you made on another site we would really love to see a link as well!

If you want to know more about this and how to apply this successfully to your description, please scroll down to see our great guide that will certainly help you if in doubt and also has some lovely free goodies as well!

Why was it wrong?: Search engine results are not acceptable sources. It does not list the name of the creator or provide any info about their Terms of Use. We also have no way of knowing which picture was used from those results.

Help! I can't credit something correctly!
Can't find the source for that awesome texture you downloaded three years ago and stuck in a nameless folder on your desktop? Struggling to get Tumblr links right? Let's see if we can fix that.

Google Image SearchGoogle Image Search can be a life-saver. You can upload an image from your computer and google will search the internet for pictures that match. It's not flawless, but it can be a great place to start. If you have not renamed the files you downloaded, you can also try copying the filename into a google text search.

Tumblr links
Since Tumblr links can be tricky for people to use correctly, a quick mini-tutorial! When crediting a resource that was originally posted on Tumblr, make sure to use a link that permanently leads to the actual post. Pointing your links at tags, or people's main blogs is not ideal because when people post more things the item you want to link to can be lost pretty quickly. However, because many Tumblr blogs have one of numerous custom themes, it can be difficult to find the correct link sometimes. The easiest way to find the permanent link to a Tumblr post on someone's blog is to find the post's date and click on that. Depending on the user's blog theme the date may be formatted as numbers (13/06/2016), a "relative" time (5 months ago) or a normal date (June 13, 2016). You may need to mouse-over the post to make the date come up. Alternately, if you see text which says "permalink" next to the post you want, that should also work.

The correct URL will be formatted in the following manner: "examplesimsblog.tumblr.com/post/14757141951/texture-download". Notice that the blog's name forms the first part of the URL, and that "/post/" followed by a string of numbers makes up the next part. That is what all permanent Tumblr links look like. If the link uses a different format than that, it is not a correct permanent link. Some common examples of incorrect links include things like "examplesimsblog.tumblr.com" or "examplesimsblog.tumblr.com/tagged/textures", both of which are not permanent. If you have a correct permanent link you should be able to see a full list of "notes" (likes and reblogs by other Tumblr users) after the end of the post.

Since we here at MTS want to help all creators find wonderful, free-to-use resources, we have a small list of sites which offer great stuff. Obviously there's a lot more stuff out there on the internet, but these sites can be a great starting place. Unless otherwise noted, these websites offer all free content which should be usable in any MTS upload with a proper credit.

Important notes
While we have done our best to ensure that the sites listed offer free content, we cannot guarantee that everything on each website is free to use. We strongly encourage you to check each site's terms of use for yourself. If items from these sites are found to have restrictive terms of use, they may not be allowed in MTS uploads.